Just a quickie post to check in for the Daring Bakers Challenge – I’ll be back to regular posting soon, but I’ve been spending an “unplugged” vacation with my family, meaning the Internet has been also on vacation!

Here in France, the bûche de noël is a must during the holidays. They are often served for dessert or even with tea or coffee in the afternoon. While some people do make or purchase a “cake” or bûche patissière from their local patisserie, far more common are the bûche glacée, or frozen bûche which resembles what is called an ice cream cake in North America. When I read the following on the DBers forums, I was delighted :

Why was I so excited? Because each year at noël I politely decline the many slices of bûche offered to me as they are constructed with animal products. I prefer my holidays to be cruelty free, thank you very much. This month’s was the little nudge that I needed to make a vegan yule log, and it was so easy, I’ll be able to add this to my holiday recipe repertoire!

Bûchejust out of the freezer, waiting for icing…

Such a delicious challenge! The biggest compliment came from Monsieur Fish, a self-proclaimed bûche expert having enjoyed more than his fair share of yule logs over the course of his 33 years. He boasted proudly to our dinner guests that I’d made the yule log from scratch “Elle l’a fait maison!” then waited until they all gushed about how delicious it was before he announced that it was vegan – and told them it was the best bûche he’d ever had!

The most difficult part of this challenge for me was the photography! Of course I opted to serve it for a dessert after diner, so the light in my kitchen was terrible, but here you go :

Beautiful, frosted bûche with starry sprinkles courtesy of Guppy

Melting, but oh so yummy!

This was one of the most fun and easy challenges I’ve had the pleasure of participating in! I don’t know if an omni version would have been as easy to put together, but the vegan version was as easy as (eating) pie! Here’s what I did :

Genoise – recipe for vanilla cupcakes from The Joy of Vegan Baking

Chocolate Mousse – Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World

Ganache – Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World

Crème Brulée – recipe for Pastry Cream from The Joy of Vegan Baking

Chocolate Frosting – Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World

praliné layer – I used the hazelnut praline technique from our July challenge

Well Shelly I have to thank you for being the only one who just said it was easy without any equivocation (aside from our pastry chefs who, of course, thought nothing of it). I’m really glad you now have an alternative to all the buches you can buy and what a lovely compliment from Monsieur Fish (I have to admit that Marion and I went a little over the top in terms of how elaborate it is, this is like a PH version of a buche rather than the regular ones everyone buys for Christmas Eve dinner but we thought we might as well go for it since we could). Enjoy your internet-free time and have a lovely new year!